Oedipus Rex
by Rhea-samma
Summary: Their relationship had always been a strange one, and contrary to popular belief, he did not love him. He hated the man, and hated himself for using him...


I don't own Yami no Matsuei.

This idea came from an alternate view on Tatsumi and Tsuzuki's relashionship. Tatsumi hates him. No seriously. :stares: Hmm THE Kyoto event, combined the manga and the anime telling of events really.

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Tatsumi froze as he recognized the black flames of Touda the Blazing Serpent. The impossibly hot, impossibly dark tongues of fire danced eagerly, wrapping everything in a searing embrace that ate through steel and melted glass away like frost on a window pane. Kurosaki was shouting, trying to reach Tsuzuki, but he was beyond contact now. Tatsumi had seen this before. _Tsuzuki..You truly... wish to die, don't you?_ The secretary stood there, unsure of what to do. A moment ago he was prepared to save Tsuzuki at any and all costs but now... _Shouldn't I respect his wishes? Just this once when it matters most? I have already given him so much pain..._

Their relationship had always been a strange one. It was a tangled web of hurt, confusion, need, and psychological disorders up to the wazoo. Tatsumi knew the dozens of reasons why Tsuzuki fascinated him, but that didn't make it any easier or more comfortable to think about. The principle fact was that Tsuzuki reminded Tatsumi so much of his mother it bordered on some sort of Freudian Oedipus complex. However those moments weren't really often, but they were always at the worst times. Just when Tatsumi had wanted something a little bit more, Tsuzuki had the infuriating habit of embodying Seiichiro's mother, which was disturbing enough to act as a bucket of ice water and a slap to the face. It was painful, to want to protect this man, to want this man, and yet be reminded at every crucial juncture that he was a failure and unequipped to do what he sought out to do.

That feeling of deficiency and failure was too painful, too humiliating to bear. And the fact that whenever he thought he dared to try and advance their relationship anyway, his mother's ghost would resurface, quelling any hormones and brought forth a sense of disgust and self-loathing. Those feelings eventually turned from a confused love into exasperated frustration and twisted longing. Eventually it all became a passionate resentment of his former partner. _You never knew that the truth was.. I hated you. Yet I needed that...comfort so much...I ended up hurting you...using you. Then let your death be my punishment...for all the pain I caused you_. Yes, that would be just. Tsuzuki would be beyond any pain he could ever inflict again. Tsuzuki would be beyond the secretary's cruel selfishness. Tatsumi dispassionately lent his voice to Watari's explanation about the inherent danger of Touda's inky flames, that Tsuzuki had meant for his double-edged axe swing to fall back on his own head. And with the stubborn determination of youth-or whatever twisted parody of it that Hisoka embodied-the youngest Shinigami leaped into the hellish inferno.

"You're running away Seiichiro Tatsumi." Tatsumi closed his eyes,

"Watari..." The scientist grasped his jacket and smacked him hard across the face,

"Forget about your guilt for a moment and think about Tsuzuki! Think about the kid!" Tatsumi brought up a hand to touch his stinging, throbbing cheek. "Are you going to condemn them both because of your feelings?" Watari paused. His voice was suddenly quiet and calm, barely audible over the rage of Touda's power, "It's alright to respect the wishes of other people, but at the same time it's okay to over-rule those wishes as well, Tatsumi. Tsuzuki's doing what he thinks is right, and so are we. There's no need to decide who's correct right away is there?" Tatsumi turned his gaze to the flames before them, threatening to break loose, already eating their way through the cheap, thin, industrial carpeting and tile. His hand went to his forehead and he chuckled deprecatingly at himself,

"I suppose you're right. And...it would be too hard on Tsuzuki if Kurosaki died..." Watari smiled as the faint, heat obscured figures of his two friends were enveloped into Tatsumi's Shadow Vacuum. Silently, Watari placed a hand on Tatsumi's shoulder, before ghosting into spirit form in order to wait out the fire. Tatsumi followed him shortly after, silently thanking Watari for giving him the strength to save that which mattered to him most-his home.


End file.
